On Saturday we decided to run an LMP race. It's been a long time since we had this category, and it's the first time we race it as a friendly event and, most importantly, in 12V. So far it was ran in 14.8v (something we used to do since it started on SCX track), and it had been a very difficult one. Now on the new Ninco track, current flow is much improved and LMP cars running on 14.8v without magnets, are really hard to drive. So we switched to 12v, as we do in all other classes.10 racers came to the track, since Monday was a national holiday and some people had taken some time off. Nevertheless, it was a really enjoyable event.

A diverse grid as usual:

Not all the above cars hit the track, some were kept as reserves, and some were ran by more than one competitors (as it was a purely friendly event, we wanted some guys to get to grips with the category and choose whatever they like). Christos provided some of his cars for the guys who didn't have one yet to drive. Also the blue Pescarolo and the red Audi R10 were not raced, since they were prepared for my wife, who didn't manage to show up. We even had a Scaleauto Radical, a new arrival from the Nurnberg show, in stock form with only a set of rear tires on it. Christos, the distributor, raced it, and it seemed a very promising choice.

We divided the racers in 3 heats and ran a set of 5min runs on each of the 4 lanes of our Ninco track. I was racing the Avant slot Peugeot 908 for the first time, and this proved the car to beat. It was the fastest thing on the track. It clocked amazing times and allowed me to easily cruise for the win. But right at my back, a really close fight between 5 drivers was developing for 2nd spot. George Damato driving an AS Pescarolo, George Tekelis with an SCX Audi R8, Alexis with a Spirit Dallara, Christos with the Scaleuto Radical and Vasilis Lykaris with a Slot.it Audi R8C where all fighting for the runner-up spot. Alexis was the most consistent, George Damato was the fastest but made the most mistakes, Christos was testing a new car, Vasilis was missing track time, and George Tekelis seemed the most likely to come on top. But on his last run he had to abandon the race and lost an almost certain podium finish. George Damato lost precious time on his last run because he missed the correct settings on his Slot.it controller and Alexis with the fewest mistakes of all, grabbed second place. Christos ended on fourth, with a box stock Radical (apart from rear tires), really happy with the potential his new car showed. Vasilis Lykaris was constantly improving his pace, but he misses track time, and in almost every race, it takes some time for him to adjust his driving to the conditions, so he loses some ground at his first runs.

With this race, I feel the LMP category was reborn. At 12V, with a variety of options and really top of the line cars, it is now one of the most obvious choices for a closely contested race. All that remains to be seen is, when all people have their own car and they are all prepared to the max, and off course, with the presence of many top dogs that were missing from this one, which car and driver will emerge on top. My guess is that, every time we will have a different winner...